Rating: 
Summary: If you loved the show, you'll love the book
Review: This book feels like a reunion of old friends, telling their stories at a dinner party that you are fortunate enough to overhear.
There is so much history in the years of SNL that there is an anecdote for every fan, but this book recognizes Loren Michaels as being the true genius behind the creation and development of the show. He's not universally loved by the cast (but also not nearly as despised as Chevy Chase, who seems to beeveryone's favorite whipping boy), but his genius is acknowledged by one and all.
A lot of favorite skits and characters are discussed, as well as some legendary battles with censors, advertisers and network executives. The mix of radical comedy with revenue concious TV executives makes for fascinating reading.
The chapters dealing with the deaths of cast members and behind the scene staff members are incredibly poignant, especially Belushi's and Chris Farley's, bit of whom were known to be dancing with trouble.
This book also goes a long way to humanizing Chris Rock, who emerges as one of the most thoughtful and career minded members of all SNL casts. His intelligence shines through in his tales of making it by way of the show.
There is a great story on almost every page of this book, and having grown up with this show, it made the memories all the more pleasant.
This is a great Christmas present for any 30-50 year old who has spent their Saturday night in front of a TV.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved the show, you'll love the book
Review: This book feels like a reunion of old friends, telling their stories at a dinner party that you are fortunate ewnough to overhear.
There is so much history in the years of SNL that there is an anecdote for every fan, but this book recognizes Loren Michaels as being the true genius behind the creation and development of the show. He's not universally loved by the cast (but also not nearly as despised as Chevy Chase, who seems to beeveryone's favorite whipping boy), but his genius is acknowledged by one and all.
A lot of favorite skits and characters are discussed, as well as some legendary battles with censors, advertisers and network executives. The mix of radical comedy with revenue concious TV executives makes for fascinating reading.
The chapters dealing with the deaths of cast members and behind the scene staff members are incredibly poignant, especially Belushi's and Chris Farley's, bit of whom were known to be dancing with trouble.
This book also goes a long way to humanizing Chris Rock, who emerges as one of the most thoughtful and career minded members of all SNL casts. His intelligence shines through in his tales of making it by way of the show.
There is a great story on almost every page of this book, and having grown up with this show, it made the memories all the more pleasant.
This is a great Christmas present for any 30-50 year old who has spent their Saturday night in front of a TV.
Rating: 
Summary: Zweibel's phraseology threw my back out
Review: My favorite bit of commentary is from the shlub named after a German onion.ALAN ZWEIBEL: "It's like when I was doing Garry Shandling's first series, we wanted to have Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop on. I said, 'Of course we'll fly you out', and she said, 'Well, what about Lamb Chop?' What *about* Lamb Chop?!? She says that Lamb Chop gets a seat. I swear to God, I almost threw my back out giving her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn't insane. I laughed and she said, 'Lamb Chop doesn't sit in the back'. I said, 'If I'm not mistaken, are we talking about the same Lamb Chop? Because, you know, it's a sock! It's a sock with a button, okay?!?' And it ended up we didn't use her because it was too insane." Chevy Chase said something that had me prostrate on the goddam floor for 2 hours. (Regardless of the fact that Chevy was a dope-addled creep.) Terry Sweeney says to Chevy: "Is there anything I can do for you?" Chevy: "Well for a start you could lick my balls."
Rating:
Summary: good 'bathroom' book
Review: 600+ pages of snippets from cast and writers. You can just flip through it and read bits here and there -- hence the 'bathroom' suggestion.
It's pretty interesting, but nothing really earth-shattering for any long-time watcher of the show.
Rating: 
Summary: I can't believe it took TWO people to write this train wreck
Review: this book's format STINKS. it is one degree away from being a 500 page audio transcript. I am big SNL fan and was very disapointed by this book.
Tom Shales is too lazy to do any writing! each chapter is a nothing more than a series of extended pull quotes from interviews. these interviews are then chopped up and dispearsed through the chapters. this means you get a lot of people saying the same thing over and over. (I didn't find the contradictions anywhere NEAR as interesting as other reviewers did.)
The book is broken up into strange 3-7 year spans which are chapters and then ends with an outrageously long and repetive chapter on Lorne Michaels! there is an index (thank God!) but it's pretty ignorant and not that useful.
there are NO graphics. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not some troglodyte that needs pictures in all the books I read, but I AM a graphic designer who understands how some information design and charts AT LEAST linking names to faces would help in the understanding and appreciation of the book. the only thing that comes close is a text only year by year listing at the very end of the book.
I want to see clearly who had sex with who, who did what drugs, who won the fist fights between chevy and bill murray, etc! charts are SUCH a necessary thing here. I know it's not supposed to be a coffee table book but please, it SHOULD be. this format was completely a pain in the ass to read.
on one page you have Sheri Oteri talking about how she would cry herself to sleep everynight and then three paragraphs later Anna Gaustayer is talking about how Will Farrell was that era's Phil Hartman. It's totally incoherent and non-linear!
Thank God I went to the library to get this. I want a book that actually goes through the trouble of TELLLING a story, not lazily copping out and cobbling together a ream of disconnected quotes.
This book sucks. I enjoyed the Second City retrospective book better.
Rating: 
Summary: A total page-turner, especially for SNL fans
Review: This is a fun book, though not nearly as important a contribution to pop culture as some would like to think it is. The book is littered with great gossip and juicy tidbits: Milton Berle's large "package"; Chevy Chase's apathy towards the show and its cast members; the cocaine use by the cast members and writers during the 70s and 80s; Chris Elliott and Janeane Garofalo's inability to to gel with SNL; Lorne Michaels' shift from laissez faire manager in the 70s to corporate work-horse in 80s, 90s, and 00s, etc. The book pails in comparison to another NYC-related gossip-tome: McCain and McNeil's "Please Kill Me" (about the punk rock scene). Because SNL is still going, access to the REAL gossip will not be granted (i.e. the real nature of the drug abuse, nasty pranks and sexual proclivities of the cast members). Also, there are some glaring omissions here. There's barely any mention of Danitra Vance, (I think) the first African American female cast member and the third SNL alumni to die (yes, to date, 5 SNL alumni have died: Belushi, Radner, Vance, Farley and Hartman; she died of breast cancer in 1994), or Tracy Morgan. There's barely any mention of Ben Stiller, either. Also, the book reinforces the stereotypes of SNL as a "boys club" by having very few contributions from Jane Curtin, less representation of Gilda Radner, Nora Dunn, nor any of the women cast members from the not-so-popular years of '80-'83. Eddie Murphy is treated well despite not making himself available for the book. Despite all my criticisms, it is a very fun read, and it is particularly insightful as to how show business works, particularly the huge networking and talent scouting that goes on to find these great comedic talents.
Rating:
Summary: OH MY GOD!
Review: After reading this book I now know that Saturday Night Live is mankind's most important achievement, at least according to many of the people interviewed for this book. Here are some typical lines from the book, "We reinvented comedy, the way the Beatles reinvented Rock", or, "We were the Beatles of comedy."
I was in High School when SNL debuted. I remember thinking that an American network is finally doing a Monty Python type show. In fact some of the writers take credit for stuff that Monty Python had done long before. I'm sure the success of Python was the impetus for doing SNL.
There have been great moments on SNL, but for every great moment there are at least 3, "why is this on TV" moments. And for every Eddie Murphy and Bill Murray there are 3 former cast members handing out carts at Wal-Mart. Sure a lot of well know celebrities (even ex presidents) have made appearances. This just shows how desperate people can get for self promotion.
Not all the SNL people are full of themselves; in fact the most talented ones seem the most down to earth. The most arrogant ones seem to be the ones that have had the least success outside of the show.
I strongly recommend this book for any Psychology student doing a term paper on Narcissism
The book is actually quite good at least 4 stars. I liked the rather unique format of letting the people involved tell the story, each from a different perspective. I only gave it one star because if you read it, you will loose any admiration you have for the withering remains of a show you once thought was cool.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting overview of SNL's backstage history
Review: This book, comprised mostly of interviews with people that have worked on the Saturday Night Live over the years, really works thanks to the editing. As one person tells an anecdote, Miller & Shales follow it up with someone else telling a contradicting story, or with more details from another source.
The story spans 28 years of the show's history, and does so in great detail. However, Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad's "Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live" does a better job of chronicling the earliest days of the show.
Rating:
Summary: Stayed up all night reading it
Review: This is a terrific oral history of the show. Gives you a sense of how it got off the ground, the insane competition for performers and writers to get sketches into the show, and gossipy stuff like politics, obnoxious hosts, and drug use. Reflections on the deaths of Belushi, Gilda, Farley, and Hartman are tremendously moving. I started this book at about 9:00 p.m., did not put it down until 6:30 a.m. the next morning.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorite books
Review: I just finished reading this book for the second time. I LOVE it. I wish they would write a second volume with more of the same kind of information. If you like Saturday Night Live check it out.
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